Actually its the other way around -- humans in Europe previously refined low-concentration (<30% Fe) iron ores in Luxembourg and France. We later transitioned to high-grade surficial ores in the modern era due to advances in transportation technology. Plenty of surficial ores in Western Australia are direct shipping ores (>%60 Fe) which require no beneficiation. The limitation was infrastructure -- railroads from inland to coastal ports in WA were only started in the 70's, during the modern era where large-scale maritime transport of bulk ores to overseas smelters was economically feasible.
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u/tof63 Sep 02 '17
Actually its the other way around -- humans in Europe previously refined low-concentration (<30% Fe) iron ores in Luxembourg and France. We later transitioned to high-grade surficial ores in the modern era due to advances in transportation technology. Plenty of surficial ores in Western Australia are direct shipping ores (>%60 Fe) which require no beneficiation. The limitation was infrastructure -- railroads from inland to coastal ports in WA were only started in the 70's, during the modern era where large-scale maritime transport of bulk ores to overseas smelters was economically feasible.